The shrimping on the river is what everyone's talking about. The numbers continue to be impressive, but the size remains on the small side.

Reports as far north as Ortega came in of as many as 100 shrimp a throw with a cast net. But these are very small. The size improves the farther down the river you go. But at best the shrimp are 40-count, and at worse a lot less.

The major players from the opening day of fishing chased one another around the same water, caught big fish and ended up splitting the pot in the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament at Sisters Creek on Friday.

With 351 boats clearing inlets at Fernandina, Jacksonville and St. Augustine, the odds of first and second place on Thursday's first day of fishing remaining one and two the second day are slim.

JACKSONVILLE -- Long runs and Lady Luck helped fill the leaderboard on the first day of the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament on Thursday at Sisters Creek.

Jacksonville captain Russell Stuart and the crew on the Seafood Kitchen held the top spot at the end of the first day of fishing. They pinned their plan on a risky run south, looping 118 miles roundtrip to fish off of Daytona Beach. It paid off when their 45.75-pound king ate a ribbonfish on a flat line.

The Reel Quick ended up in the second spot and beat a bunch of gremlins to get there.

While the majority of the shrimp remains a little bigger than a bait shrimp and a little smaller than an eating shrimp, the numbers are fantastic. From Green Cove Springs north, a five-gallon limit is a realistic goal. If you have no boat, don't sweat it. The piers on both the St. Johns and Clay sides of the river at the Shands Bridge are producing lots of shrimp as are the Green Cove Springs Pier and the small pier at Governor's Creek.

The Powers family's summer vacation was spoiled by the oil leak on Florida's Gulf Coast.

They could not be happier.

Twelve-year-old Cody Powers won the Junior Angler Tournament at the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament at Sisters Creek on Tuesday, proving that the first time really can be a charm. He took home a new boat, motor and trailer in the process.

The Powers' plan for a week of fishing and relaxation in the Big Bend area of the state changed a couple of weeks ago.

More than 150 young anglers answered that question Friday as they brought lots of fish -- and some nice ones -- to the scales at the Kingfish Challenge's Junior Angler tournament.

The fishing was hot. And the reason for that had to do with temperatures as well. A cold water inversion settled over Northeast Florida beaches three weeks ago, keeping water temperatures in the low 70's. Tuesday westerly winds began to turn the water column over and by Friday's fishing, the anglers were fishing water in the mid-80s.

Jim Sutton's weekly fishing report appears each Thursday. His column will not be published next Thursday, but will return July 15.

The St. Johns River and area lakes

The first real reports of river shrimp came in this week. Netters were getting five-gallon buckets of small to medium shrimp in three or four hours of netting. These were pretty much what should be termed bait shrimp, not eating shrimp.